1. Rome
It's not immediately obvious if this has any connection to the 1969 BBC Civilisation series (or the 2018 Simon Schama-presented Civilisations that was an attempt to be a modern updating of the '60s series) beyond the name. But I can't see it being entirely a coincidence seeing as this is a series about history as viewed through the art of the time.
However the resemblances in production style are slight. Schama and his co-presenters were obviously following in the footsteps of Kenneth Clark (not that one), but this series eschews on-screen presenters entirely, opting for a mix of voiceover narration (provided by Sophie "Scream of the Shalka" Okonedo) and 'talking head' experts. This, combined with the way the artworks being talked about are presented to viewers - essentially in their own distinct, cordoned off sections of the programmes - makes the series more closely resemble 2022's Art That Made Us than either of the preceding Civilisation series.
The first episode in the four-part series focuses on the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 410AD. The narration and the experts both take great pains to point out every similarity between that period of history and the present, with talk about the mega-wealthy bleeding their society dry and a refugee crisis leading to mass immigration. No names are named for the modern equivalents, giving the series the vaguest fig leaf* that it isn't referring to anybody specific, while the historic equivalents are the Emperor Honorius, General Stilicho and Alaric the Goth. These three characters give viewers identification figures upon which the episode can hang its narrative.
Rome is a frequent subject of historical documentaries, but this period is not one that I have seen concentrated upon much, so there was a good deal that was of interest here, with or without the parallels to modern times, which were clearly being laboured upon for the benefit of viewers less able to draw their own conclusions than us cats. My biggest issue was how it just feels weirdly distracting to have the word "Civilisations" in the title, which seems to promise something the programme then doesn't deliver. It lacks that "personal view" identity that having a single central presenter gave the real Civilisation.
2. Egypt
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first - Alastair Campbell appears in this as one of the talking head experts, for no readily explained reason. Why did the makers pick this cunt over any other expert who would surely have been at least as well qualified as him, with the added bonus of not being involved in lying to the British public in order to start a pointless war? I can only conclude that this was yet another BBC 'jobs for the boys' stitch up, probably Campbell was at school with the Producer or something. After all, I hardly think he qualifies as a 'big name' to draw in the viewers - he's far more likely to put them off, mew!
Anyway, his odious presence aside, this episode covers the fall of Ptolemaic Egypt in 30BC, which (for me at least) is more familiar territory than the fall of Rome, being as it was the subject of the BBC historical drama series The Cleopatras, as well as the famous Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton epic Cleopatra.
Cleopatra is very much the main character here, with the other big names of that period of history - Mark Antony, Julius Caesar and Octavian - playing secondary fiddles to her struggle to gain the throne and retain control of Egypt over the course of her reign.
Being a documentary not a drama, this goes beyond the stories of the major players involved to tell us some stuff I didn't already know, such as the fact that a volcanic eruption in Alaska can be blamed for the 10 years of unexpected (and hitherto unexplained) droughts that afflicted Egypt during Cleopatra's reign, depleting her treasury and significantly weakening her personal power as well as Egypt's influence, to the benefit of the rising Roman Empire.
This additional context for the events more than makes this documentary a worthwhile use of your time, presence of Alastair "we could just do what the Americans want us to like we always do but first let's drive a manny to his death for the lols" Campbell notwithstanding.
3. Aztecs
Weirdly I thought this was a bit of a slow one for much of the middle of the programme, almost like they had to pad out the episode to fill the hour. Then the last 15 minutes (or so) packed in a lot of activity as the various events that it had been building up to all hit at once. In a way I suppose this does help convey the sudden and rapid collapse of the Aztec Zone Empire, which fell in only two years (1519-1521) after the Spaniards arrived.
Even in the last forty years the way this period of history is taught has become less Eurocentric - a Marshall Cavendish partwork magazine called Discovery, which came out in the late 1980s, had issues focused on Columbus and Cortes which would never be done the same way today. This episode seemed to be going to the other extreme to begin with - I wondered if the Aztec's sacrifice of mannys was going to get a mention at all. Eventually it did, and not as downplayed as I first feared it was going to be.
But the real emphasis was on how Cortes was "a nobody" (this was one of the first lines of the programme) as if it would have been A-OK if the Aztecs had been conquered by officially authorised representatives of a European power, no doubt led by a prince or an artistocrat or two. As if they wouldn't have had the same motivation as Cortes had - pure greed, mew.
The attempt to draw parallels between the smallpox epidemic that decimated the Aztecs and the Covid pandemic was somewhat undermined by their own talking head expert saying that smallpox killed 33% of its victims while Covid killed only 1-2%. An example of the reach of the episode exceeding its grasp, if this was the best way they could think to illustrate this point.
Still worth watching for the overall story of this period, even if there are bits of the episode that were weak on their own.
4. Japan
Better paced than the Aztecs programme and about as interesting, this tells of events from the 19th century when the Americans forced Japan to trade with them and then fucked their economy. Plus ça change. This then led to the downfall of the traditional Japanse way of life and the beginning of Westernisation, as examplified by the destruction of the samurai class and their archetypal katana swords.
Oddly there's a decision to present the entire 'fall' from the point of view of the samurais, and barely any mention is made of the other roughly 93% of the population of Japan, who might have perhaps been glad of the removal of the right of the other 6-7% to openly carry fuck-off razor sharp swords everywhere and get bowed to in the streets under the unspoken threat of violence.
The real villains of the piece are the Americans under Matthew "Friends" Perry, who come out of it looking like right dicks. The colonial mindset of the mid-19th century is hinted at but not dwelled upon, which for a British-made programme is a bit rich. I wonder how many other 19th century civilisations that fell were considered for this fourth programme, only to be rejected because of who it was that caused them to fall?
The message here is that isolationism is bad, which I think we can all get behind, though unlike in earlier episodes there's no direct and unambiguous parallels drawn with modern states or kingdoms (united or otherwise, mew). Another minor flaw of this episode is that one of the talking heads is an author whose overly enthusiastic style of delivery clashes with the more serious statements of the actual experts. Still, considering the Egypt episode had Alastair fucking Campbell in it, it could have been a lot worse.
Overall, this was a good but flawed series, which probably benefitted from putting its best programme out first. It wasn't a patch on earlier documentary series with the word "Civilisation" in the title, and any comparions with them can only see this one come out looking poorly. And at only four parts, such small portions!
Series ranking:
Rome
(Egypt if you excluded Alastair Campbell's bits)
Japan
Aztecs
Egypt
